


Antiphony

by Matrya



Series: Names of the Damned [5]
Category: Angel: the Series
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-30
Updated: 2016-03-30
Packaged: 2018-05-30 03:31:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 377
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6406915
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Matrya/pseuds/Matrya
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The shadows are different shades of the same dark. // Cordelia still knows, lives and learns, June '99.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Antiphony

**Author's Note:**

> ten minute fic. because i don't buy one bit that Cordelia Chase lets herself forget what's up.

Getting invited to a party has never been a problem, never will be. She can smile and preen; she can flatter anyone if she puts her mind to it.

When all else fails, she can slip in on the arm of a man with a desperate look and two alimony payments.

No, the problem is getting through the parties without seeing shadows. This director keeps midnight hours. The producer she just met has a Bloody Mary in his hand that might actually be from a girl named Mary. The not-quite-a-star she meets at the buffet has a contract with a demon.

Cordelia has no problem getting in, but staying there when she can smell the blood in one man's drink is the problem.

As far as problems go, it probably rates below the debacle at graduation. It might be above the disaster at Homecoming.

She finds a great gym where she takes a few kickboxing classes and learns some krav maga. She mindlessly whittles the broken chair from the hallway into stakes while she goes over lines and Leno drones in the background.

She finds a vintage dress in a resale shop and buys it with dimes instead of dollars. Then, she goes to another party and makes sure the producer with the Bloody Mary never catches a look at the stake in her clutch or the knife held under the vintage dress that looks better than anything she can actually afford, still shabby in the glittering room.

Someday, she knows, she will have a day where she never needs to schmooze with a vampire again. Her star will rise and Cordelia Chase will have her choice of projects and creative directors.

Until then, she manages to find the money to pay for another month at the gym and she whittles the rest of the broken chair into an arsenal she forgets about as often as she relies on it. She sells the vintage dress for what it is and buys three more until she realises the resale shop owner has a tail and the old lady at the bakery next door wears a wig that covers more than a bald spot.

Cordelia moved but shadows are everywhere and she knows nothing better than how to adapt.

**Author's Note:**

>  **Memo:** I don't check comments or kudos, but feel free to yell at me on [tumblr](http://matrya.tumblr.com) or [check out](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Matrya) my other writing!


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